Halo 3

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Halo 3
Developer(s)Bungie Studios
Publisher(s)Microsoft Game Studios
SeriesHalo
EngineProprietary
Platform(s)Xbox 360
Release
[1]
[1]
[1]
Genre(s)First-person shooter
Mode(s)Single player, Cooperative mode, Multiplayer and Online multiplayer

Halo 3, the third game in the best-selling Xbox game franchise Halo, is a highly anticipated first-person shooter video game under development by Bungie Studios for the Xbox 360 and is expected to "set a new high water mark" for next-generation games.[2] An official announcement on the developers' website states that Halo 3 will end the current story arc of the Halo trilogy. A public beta test of the multi-player component of the game began on May 16, 2007[3] and ended on June 10, 2007. The final version of the game is due to be released on September 25, 2007[1] in the United States and Australia, and on September 26 in Europe.

Features

Plot

The game will not begin right where Halo 2 left off. The new comic mini-series, Halo: Uprising, will bridge the story gap between the ending of Halo 2, and the beginning of Halo 3.[4]

When the game begins, Master Chief is back on a thoroughly conquered, Covenant-controlled Earth, and Cortana is still a prisoner of Gravemind. Covenant ships are hovering over an excavation site a few miles from the ruins of New Mombasa and have uncovered a large artifact in this site. The Arbiter, along with the remaining Elites, have allied themselves with the human forces after splitting from the rest of the Covenant in Halo 2.

The story mode will be divided into nine main levels,[5] which gives some information about the game's length and an indistinct view of the story arc.

Graphics

File:Battlezwned.jpg
Work-in-progress Halo 3 screenshot of hidden-line rendering in the alpha-build. Not all polygons are shown.

Halo 3 will utilize a proprietary, in-house graphics engine, often refered to as the "Halo 3 Engine".[6]This engine builds upon the technologies of the Halo 2 Engine (and previously the Halo 1 Engine) and is re-optimized for the architecture of Xbox 360.

As detailed on the Bungie Studios website, it will employ advanced graphics technologies such as High Dynamic Range, global lighting, real-time reflections and real-time depth of field effect. Depth of field however will only be used in cutscenes and not during gameplay. Certain surfaces, including the Master Chief's visor (when visible) and the armor of a Ghost, will have real-time reflections. Most of the objects in the game will cast real-time shadows on themselves and the environment around them, including the game's plant life. Halo 3 will use Normal, bump, and parallax mapping to give surfaces more detail without dramatically increasing the number of polygons.

Bungie has also stated that the draw distance of the game will be in excess of 10 miles (16 km). Sophisticated new atmospheric models are used in the game to replace the traditional skybox[7], allowing several layers of cloud and atmospheric cover, and even a pseudo "space" beyond that. Dust and smoke particles can be used to add to the realism of the environment, and the haze effect which is often used in video games to save processing power is so realistic that it actually costs processing power.

Water effects are also dramatically improved, and water can now reflect and refract images simultaneously. As well as being able to simulate effects such as waterfalls, water will visually flow around objects in its path and splash when players, vehicles, or other objects travel through it.

Physics

Halo 3, like Halo 2, uses a version of the Havok physics engine for much of its physics calculations.[8] Although parts of the physics, like melee, are done with custom code on top of the middleware.

A wide variety of objects are affected by physical interactions in Halo 3. Crates, canisters, objective objects, dropped weapons, characters, bodies, vehicles, and some parts of the world geometry all interact with each other and the world around them in believable physical ways. Trajectories of thrown grenades are also affected by the gravity lifts in the game (including the "Mancannon").

Some of the foliage in the game is physically reactive; it not only moves in the simulated wind, but actually reacts to the player's (or other creatures) presence and bullet fire, as well as explosions. Some flora in the game will also be destroyed after receiving enough damage.

Audio

As with all titles on the Xbox 360, Halo 3 will fully support 5.1 surround sound audio. In the game, there will be many more individual pieces of combat dialogue than in either of the preceding Halo titles (Halo 2 had over 15,000), and the AI controlling this dialogue is designed to ensure the exchanges flow naturally and convincingly. Separate recordings have been made for nearby and distant gunfire, making for a more realistic experience. Distant gunfire sounds, which may first seem like prerecorded ambient sound, may often be the result of an actual firefight happening in the distance.

Marty O'Donnell is again composing the original score. Some pieces of the game's music are produced with a much larger real orchestra than anything in the prior two games. For example, the music for the announcement trailer was recorded with a 60-piece orchestra and a 24-piece choir.

Voice actors returning to reprise their roles in Halo 3 include: Jen Taylor as Cortana and Steve Downes as the voice of Master Chief. Actress Julie Benz however, is not voicing Miranda Keyes for Halo 3.[9]

Gameplay

The current default controller layout.

Halo gameplay will adhere to what Multiplayer Designer Lars Bakken describes as the "Golden Three Things of Halo", which are weapons, grenades, and melee attacks; all three of which are simultaneously available to a player at all times while on foot (unless they are dual wielding).

Ideologically, gameplay centers around the idea of "balance" (at least in multiplayer). That is, each specific weapon or piece of equipment has specific areas were it is most useful, and others where it falls far short. No matter what combination of weapons a player chooses (players are famously limited only two choices of weapons in Halo), there will be situations in which they have an advantage, and others in which they have a disadvantage. The result is that there is no one weapon/vehicle that is overwhelmingly the best overall choice for whatever type of situation they may encounter (unlike the M6D pistol in Halo 1).

AI behavior of both enemies and allies in the campaign, will be greatly enhanced in Halo 3. Marines' driving and gunning skills on the Warthog, Grunt flanking maneuvers in battle, and Brute "pack mentality" have all been mentioned by Bungie as examples of using the power of the Xbox 360 for more than just increased polygon counts. Enemy AI will also have new non-combat behaviors, rather than just sitting around waiting for players to kill them, to make them feel more "alive".

The new default controller layout will see the Right Bumper become the "action" button (pick up, reload, board vehicles, activate switches, etc), with the X button being used for deployment of special equipment:[10] the portable grav lift, the Bubble Shield, the trip mine and the power drainer. When dual-wielding, weapons can be individually reloaded using either the left or right bumper.

Other buttons are unchanged, but B (melee attack) also will be used to take a stationary gun turret off its tripod for mobile use, becoming one of the game's "support weapons" (see Weaponry below),[11] as well as other context sensitive functions.

Weaponry

Halo 3 introduces a new-to-the-series class called "support weapons". These are a group of exceptionally large, powerful and cumbersome two-handed weapons that, when carried, change the view to a third-person perspective and cause the player to move more slowly. The only two weapons in this class that have been revealed thus far are the Machine Gun Turret and the Missile Pod, both of which were available in the Public Beta.

The now iconic Assault Rifle which appeared in the original Halo as the MA5B but was absent from Halo 2 is returning for Halo 3 retooled into the MA5C. Developer Bungie hopes it will fill the role as the "ultimate spawn weapon", allowing players to hold their own in a fight straight away (unlike the SMG in Halo 2) but not be so powerful as to overshadow all of the other weapons (like the M6D in Halo). In hopes of fulfilling this, it has a smaller magazine and slower rate of fire than its previous iteration but a longer range and greater accuracy.

When a player is carrying a second weapon in Halo 3, the secondary weapon will be stored on the character's back (for larger, two-handed weapons) or on a leg holster (for smaller, one-handed weapons). This makes it impossible to "hide" a powerful secondary weapon and surprise unsuspecting foes.

Vehicles

Halo 3, like its predecessors, will also feature a strong vehicular component. Vehicles, and their countermeasures (rockets, mines, etc.), are tightly integrated with Halo gameplay. Many of the series' vehicles are returning in the third installment.

The Mongoose ATV that had been originally designed for Halo 2 but was cut out, finally makes an appearance in Halo 3. Within the games' story, it is a human vehicle in addition to the Scorpion tank and Warthog offroad vehicle. It is a small quad-bike vehicle and, like the Warthog, the driver is unable to fire any on-board weapons. A second player can ride shotgun on the back of the vehicle to provide some offensive capability.

There is also a new Brute Vehicle, dubbed the "Brute Chopper". It has been called the Brute variant of the Ghost, but is much different. It seats one rider and shoots projectiles not unlike those from the Brute Shot.

Meta-game

Halo 3 features a "campaign meta-game" in which a player is awarded a score for completing a level in the single-player campaign. No other information is available save for a reference to the Achievements associated with them.[5] It implies, as with the previous Halo games, that campaign levels can be replayed freely, and that single-player Xbox Live Leaderboards will be associated with the "meta-game".

Multiplayer

Like most multiplayer Xbox 360 titles, Halo 3 will use a customized version of TrueSkill ranking system for its online matchmaking facilities. Halo 3's matchmaking system will be based on two different ranks, skill and experience (Rating Points or RP). Skill will simply be the TrueSkill rank of the player in a given playlist, and experience (RP) is identified by a Military rank; e.g. a player with a designation of a "General" will have played for a longer time than someone who is a "recruit". This is in order to make the system more fair and to reflect the effect of experience on players' profiles.[12]

UNSC Service Tags (consisting of one letter followed by two numbers) will be used instead of small HUD emblems to identify allies in games. In addition to the customization of Service Tags, players can now choose three different colors (as opposed to two in Halo 2) for their armor in multiplayer (primary, secondary and detail), as well as three for their multiplayer emblem.[13]

In the July 2007 issue of Gamepro, (as well as a few other local an international magazines) it was revealed that Spartan armor in multiplayer will be customizable in look as well as color.[14] In addition to the standard Mjolnir-armor look, players can choose to swap out helmet, arm and body sections to the new CQB (Close Quaters Battle) and EVA (Extra Vehicular Activity) armor types. There will be other armor types as well. Bungie has not confirmed whether or not the player can be an Elite, but Frankie says in the 06/08/07 Bungie Weekly Update, "Well, it would be kind of weird for us to add so much customization for appearance and forget about one of the major MP characters, wouldn’t it? We’ll have more news about the existence or otherwise of an Elite model fairly soon."

Bungie also stated that they have redesigned the UI (user interface) from Halo 2, apparently making it easier to generate a custom game in Halo 3 multiplayer.

Hosts will now be able to "advertise" their custom games via Xbox Live Public; making it easier to find a multiplayer match to a player's taste without having to link up with friends.[12]

In the November 11, 2006 Bungie Weekly Update, it was stated that due to a "significant chunk" of Halo 2 players being female, there might be an option to have a female voice for the Spartan character in multiplayer.[15]

A new feature dubbed the "A-hole button" can be used to mute annoying players in the game quickly and easily from the in-game scoreboard view.[16]

People sifting through the code, as well as those who glitched their way into the Custom Game UI, of the Halo 3 Beta have found that the strength of gravity is indeed a customizable option in multiplayer games, confirming statements made by Bungie employees.[17]

Saved Films

Halo 3 will have a feature called "Saved Films." This feature allows players to save a copy of the game data of a multiplayer match to their Xbox 360 hard drive so they may watch the match over again. The public beta's implementation will only allow viewing of the saved videos from the in-game perspective the person whose recording it is.[18]

In the final game the functionality of the "Saved Film" feature is planned to be extended. Players will be able to view the action from almost any angle and any player's perspective (including a free-roaming camera to "navigate" saved films). As well as being able to slow down the speed, zoom and even play the recording in reverse. Certain sections of the saved films could even be cut out to create a shorter clip of a particularly amazing or special moment.[18]

As the Saved Films are only the game data (not an actual video), this allows the file sizes to be relatively small. A recording for a typical "long" game is in the region of only 6 megabytes (MB).[18] Films will also be played back at whatever resolution the Xbox 360 is set to, regardless of the resolution at which the a player was using at the time of the recording. All games are recreated in real-time on the Xbox 360 using the Halo 3 engine.

Players will also be able to show their saved films to other players as well as store a saved film on a central server owned by Bungie with the new File Sharing features. Friends (or rivals) can then view it even when the creating player is not online. During the beta each player will have 25 MB of storage space, which Bungie has said will possibly increase or decrease by the time the final game ships. The Saved Film feature is described by the developers as the "Ultimate Trainer" since players can gain valuable tactical insight into the strategies of effective players by viewing the saved films.[19]

This feature will also facilitate the creation of machinima and other game-related videos, as well as give the creators of such videos advanced tools to enhance the quality of this medium. Creators of video game montages can save games to the hard drive of their Xbox 360 console for later use during the creation of montage videos, users are also able to take snapshots from their films to be shared online. While machinima directors and cinematographers will have expanded camera options, instead of having to resort to using a first-person, gameplay perspective.

Miscellaneous

Fauna are undergoing testing for inclusion in the final build of the game, specifically seagulls and a cockatoo-like creature.[20] Both will exhibit flocking behavior. Some Bungie employees are reportedly keen on the possibility of going grousing in Halo 3. [citation needed]

Although Halo 3 was planned to end the Halo series, future Halo games are likely. On the Halo 3 FAQ from the official Bungie website it says, "Q: Is this the last ever Halo game? A: It is the conclusion to this story arc." This refers to the two announced games in the Halo universe, including the new Halo Wars by Ensemble Studios. Of the other project, very little is known. Bungie said that it will be on the Xbox 360 and will "be made in partnership with Lord of the Rings and King Kong director, Peter Jackson"[citation needed] and a recently formed development studio headed by him under the name of Wingnut Interactive.

The Achievements were revealed on Xbox360Achievements.org on June 19, 2007.[5]

Different Versions

File:Halo 3 front-1-.jpg
Halo 3 Limited Edition cover

There will be three different versions of Halo 3 for retail sale. The Standard Edition, which contains the game disk and a manual. The Collectors Edition, which contains the game disk, manual, Interactive Xbox 360 Bonus Disk with several High Definition featurettes, and Beastarum, which is a "hard cover, bound collection of information and art covering the species, cultures and civilizations of Halo 3." according to Bungie. And the Legendary Edition, which contains the game disk, manual, Interactive Bonus Disk, Beastarum, Legendary DVD containing special content exclusive to the Legendary Edition, and a scale replica of the Master Chief's Helmet as a case for the three disks.[21]

Version Standard Collector's Legendary
Price (USD) $59.99 $69.99 $129.99
Game Disk & Manual Yes Yes Yes
Interactive Xbox 360 Disk No Yes Yes
Beastarum No Yes Yes*
Legendary DVD No No Yes
Master Chief Helmet Replica No No Yes
* Additional content on DVD

Pre-release marketing

As one of the most anticipated video games in history, the marketing campaign for Halo 3 has been extensive and is planned to be epic in scope. Much of the advertising to date has focused on appealing to the general public, rather than just hardcore fans of the game. Microsoft has announced the launch of an international advertising campaign using the Forerunner Structure imagery (often with massive banners hung from city skyscrapers). The campaign's scope has been compared to that usually seen for a major motion picture.[citation needed]

E3 2006 trailer

File:H3chiefemerges.jpg
The Master Chief emerges from smoke and rubble that litters an African plain.

The first public look at Halo 3 came in the form of a real-time cinematic trailer shown at Microsoft's press conference at E3 2006. The trailer is set in the dry plains of Africa, a few miles away from New Mombasa's remains, around a third of the way through the game. Parts of the broken space elevator and bridge are in the background, along with the foothills of Mount Kilimanjaro. The Master Chief is slowly revealed though smoke and dust, holding the renewed assault rifle, occasionally obscured by distorted overlaid images of Cortana transmitting a message:

"I have defied gods and demons."
"I am your shield; I am your sword.[22]"
"I know you; your past, your future"
"This is the way the world ends."

In the "Behind the Scenes" video,[23] it is stated, "We don't know what has happened to her... We don't know it's Cortana. It could be any sort of bizarre, almost Satanic sort of voice. Something seems wrong."

File:H3artifact.jpg
Covenant ships disperse as the ancient Forerunner artifact is activated.

In the trailer, a massive Covenant fleet holds position over an enormous crater. Inside of which is a circular, Forerunner related, metallic structure over three miles (4.8 km) in diameter. Above the structure is a swirling cloud, given depth by parallax mapping techniques. Covenant Banshees and Phantoms (dropships) fly towards it.

The structure begins to move and a brilliant light from its center whites out the screen. Cortana delivers with her final line (detailed above) and the trailer ends with the tagline "Finish the fight". This tagline has been used throughout the Halo 3 marketing campaign as seen on official t-shirts, along with the imagery of the Forerunner structure.

After the E3 showing, Bungie demonstrated some of the game's visual effects to the press at the conference. The Assault Rifle was fired to demonstrate that the muzzle flash was reflected off Master Chief's visor in real-time.

The trailer fanfare sports a wholly new arrangement, the addition of trumpets, and the noted absence of Halo's signature "monks."[23]

ESPN TV "Starry Night" advertisement

File:Halo3 Shield.jpg
Master Chief using the trailer version of Bubble Shield device. Nearby is a Mongoose ATV.

On December 4, 2006, a 60-second CGI commercial for Halo 3 was aired on ESPN, followed by a release on Xbox.com and Xbox Live. Its airing marked the start of the first phase of sign ups on Halo3.com for the spring Beta. It does not contain any gameplay footage, and was created entirely by Digital Domain, using a mix of live action (for the two children), animation (using Bungie-supplied assets) and pure CGI.[24]

File:Halo-3-Ad-Still.jpg
The Master Chief's MA5C Assault Rifle, along with an overturned Warthog in the background.

The ad comprises two scenes. The first shows two children lying in long grass looking at the night sky, wondering whether they will ever meet beings from "up there". The location and identity of the children are deliberately ambiguous; this being up to the interpretation of the viewer, although many fans say that the boy is Master Chief when he was younger. This scene then cuts to Master Chief's point of view, waking from unconsciousness after being thrown from a vehicle. He is on Earth, in the middle of the Covenant invasion around the events of the E3 Announcement.

In the advertisement, the Master Chief's secondary weapon is stored magnetically on his back, or on a leg holster for smaller weapons. This is later revealed as an actual visual feature of the game.

Separated from the Marines, the Master Chief evades plasma mortar impacts (with the aid of the previously unseen "Bubble Shield" device, resembling a transparent geodesic dome) and engages a group of Covenant Brutes and Wraith tanks. The ad closes with the same "HALO 3", "FINISH THE FIGHT - 2007", the Xbox 360 logo and additionally the "Jump In" slogan of the Xbox 360 marketing campaign.

Reaction to the advertisement was enthusiastic. It was the first cinematic-quality glimpse into the Halo Universe, designed to appeal to a mass audience. Fans of the series immediately started picking over the imagery for clues relating to the plot or gameplay of Halo 3.

The advertisement was aired only once, but remains available for download on many websites, including the official Bungie website.

"Et tu, Brute?" video documentary

The "Et tu, Brute?" ViDoc (a portmanteau of video documentary), released on December 20, 2006, focuses on how the Brutes have been almost completely redesigned for Halo 3 to better reflect the idea that they are meant to be a worthy adversary for the player. The ViDoc shows pre-alpha graphics, none of which are final, and some elements may be completely redesigned before launch.[25]

The ViDoc explains that the three classes of Brutes have been differentiated, the same way Halo: Combat Evolved and Halo 2 featured different classes of Elites, Grunts, and Jackals. They are all shown with much heavier armor than the Brutes in Halo 2:[25]

  • 'Standard' infantry Brutes that wear blue armor held together by buckles.
  • Brute Captains, who wear more elaborate helmets and armor.
  • Brute Chieftains, who have the most elaborate helmets and armor.

The color scheme of Elites in the prior games seems to have been applied to Brutes (blue is the lowest rank, red is higher, and gold is the highest). To reflect the Brutes' violent nature, more violent animations have been created. Examples shown in the ViDoc include a Brute ripping off the arms of a Marine, a Brute ramming a Marine into a vehicle, and another Brute punching the stomach of a Marine lying on the ground.

The AI has also been updated to incorporate the new idea of a "Brute pack". A Chieftain in Halo 3 may order all of its troops to throw grenades at the enemy together, or may decide to focus on attacking one character.[25]

The film also includes some other previously unseen elements, such as dual-wieldable Energy Swords (only used by AI) and the new Spike Grenade.[26] The "Spike Grenades" may stick to any surface except water and release a shaped charge upon explosion. A Brute Chieftain is seen firing a weapon resembling an un-deployed plasma turret from Halo 2. However, the game as shown, is still in a pre-alpha stage, and the graphics and game elements in the ViDoc are currently unconfirmed for final release in the game.

"Is Quisnam Protero Damno!" video documentary

"I condemn him whom I trample under my feet."

A ViDoc detailing the development of the multiplayer game was released on April 10, 2007. It highlighted the major ways in which the developers have sought to improve upon the Halo 2 multiplayer game which was so successful. All graphics shown were from an alpha build - no decorators were yet in place, many textures were still only placeholders, and the HDR lighting model was not being used. Nevertheless, the graphics were already demonstrably far superior to the game's predecessors, which is unsurprising as this is a next generation installment for the series. Previously unseen gameplay elements included:[27]

  • A first look at the bubble shield, tripmine, and portable gravity lift.
  • The first look at using the portable machine gun turrets.
  • The first mention of saving played games to be later viewed.
  • At least three new multiplayer maps were shown.
  • An in depth look at how the man cannons (gravity boosters) have replaced the teleport modules that were found in the previous games. Bungie has stated that in pre-development they thought about how to get a player, and some vehicles,[28] across the map.

Public beta testing

On April 10, 2007 Bungie announced that the public beta testing phase would run from May 16, 2007 at 5 a.m. PDT to June 6, 2007 at 11:59 p.m. PDT.[3] Bungie later announced that the beta would be extended to June 10, 2007 due to problems on the first day (see below). Internal testing progressed for some time at Microsoft before the Public Beta and although the internal test is non-disclosure agreement compliant, leaked footage was put on the Internet showing previously un-revealed weapons, equipment, and other game elements.

Shortly before the Beta began, Bungie endorsed a video of the internal beta made by a Microsoft employee.[29]

File:H3 valhalla 3rdperson.jpg
A screenshot of the beta showing a player with a missile pod going up against a warthog.

Entry into the Halo 3 Beta consisted of three phases;

  • Phase 1: Sign ups on Halo3.com at the time of the "Starry Night" commercial release.
  • Phase 2: "Rule of Three" promotion - be among the first 13,333 to sign up at Halo3.com after playing three hours of Halo 2 on Xbox Live during February 1st-3rd, 2007.
  • Phase 3: Buy/Rent a copy of the Xbox 360 game Crackdown.[30]

Alpha testers were allowed in automatically to the beta.

Additionally, some Beta places were given out to certain community websites in Europe over the Xbox Community Network program. There was also a "Friends and Family" Beta program that started a few days before the public beta; whose participants have already been chosen. Some of whom were Bungie.net members who received a Beta invitational code sent to them on the May 11 via a private message on Bungie.net.[31]

The public portion of the Beta consists of matchmaking play only on three multiplayer maps: Valhalla, High Ground and Snowbound.[32] Bungie has stated that the beta supports split screen for up to two players.[33] The public beta also contains only a limited version of the "saved films" feature, which allows players to save their games after they play them and watch them again later.

Due to a glitch in the public beta, some people have been able to get into the custom games menu and even start custom games.[34] The menus themselves show several new gameplay features and settings as well as weapons (i.e. M6G pistol and Covenant energy sword) that are currently not available in the matchmaking system.[34]

The Beta ended on June 10, 2007 at 11:59 p.m. PDT.

Crackdown issues

On May 16, 2007, the day the public beta began, problems were reported from owners of Crackdown that they could not download the beta. Bungie has made a statement that they had contacted the Xbox Live Authorities and were hoping for only a short delay for those attempting to access the beta via Crackdown. Later the same day, Bungie made an update saying the Microsoft team found a solution and that the issue "will be resolved shortly". [35] At 10:24 p.m. EST, a patch was distributed over Crackdown, fixing the problem. Bungie also announced that the beta would be extended until June 10 to compensate.[35]

The "Iris" alternate reality game

Main article: Iris (game)

On June 11, 2007, only a couple hours after the Halo 3 public beta ended, a surreptitious user named "AdjutantReflex" of "CompoundIntelligence" appeared in the official Halo 3 forums on Bungie.net and wrote "This will be a good place to begin." He responded to seemingly random users and their questions in a robotic manner, claiming to be a "Facilitator", whose purpose is the "Facilitation of Array requirements". His responses were vague and written in a gold colored font that individualized himself from the rest of the users, who were unable to change the color of their own font. Reminiscent of the events that introduced the "I Love Bees" alternate reality game, users were quickly led to believe that, because of the circumstances, this was indeed a new ARG from Bungie themselves to hype the forthcoming of Halo 3.

File:Halo3 arg.gif
The forerunner object showing the final diary entry.

A Circuit City advertisement that wasn't to be seen until the Sunday from which these events occurred had leaked three days early and revealed a Halo 3 Comicthat explained how the forerunner race came to planet earth to build their structures approximately 100,000 years ago. The last page of the comic was interactive and users could slide panels left and right or scratch out objects that revealed numbers. The numbers, 206, 16, 223, and 65, when put together from the interactive panels, formed an IP Address. Because the comic was not to be seen for another three days from June 14, the address, http://206.16.223.65, initially led to nothing. Moments after the news of the secret address spread across multiple forums and blogs, a website appeared on it named "Transmission Log" that featured a background and a strange countdown.[36][37] The counter was in base 7; Bungie's preoccupation with the number seven is evident in many of their games. The counter was counting down to June 21, the summer solstice or longest day of the year. On June 21, the page was updated, and now showed a 3D rendering of a forerunner object which could be viewed at any angle. Pressing a particular circular button on the Forerunner object activates the device, playing a video. If you look closely in the video there is quick photo of the west coast of Africa again confirming the strong connection between Halo and Africa. Pressing other circular buttons allows download of numerous different files, including a photo of a flood infection, a picture of stars, a ship's log, and the text file for the video.

References

  1. ^ a b c Luke Smith (Lukems) (2007-05-15). "Finish the Fight on September 25, 2007" (HTML). Bungie Software. Retrieved 2007-05-16. On September 25, 2007, players will be able to finish the fight they started in Halo: Combat Evolved and continued in Halo 2. Halo 3 will release in Europe on September 26, 2007
  2. ^ TIME Magazine, March 19, 2007, page 52
  3. ^ a b Frank O'Connor (Frankie) (2007-04-10). "Inside Bungie: Multiplayer Madness!" (HTML). Bungie.net. Retrieved 2007-04-17. The Halo 3 Multiplayer Beta will go live on May 16th at 12:00 AM PDT and run through June 6th at 11:59 PM PDT
  4. ^ Bungie Studios (2007-06-14). "Halo: Uprising On Halo3.com" (HTML). Halo3.com. Retrieved 2007-06-22. ...the miniseries will bridge the gap between Halo 2 and the upcoming release of the highly-anticipated Halo 3 video game...
  5. ^ a b c Bungie Software. "Halo 3 Achievement List" (HTML). Xbox360Achievements.org. Retrieved 2007-06-17. Cite error: The named reference "achievements" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  6. ^ Kathleen Sanders (2006-05-09). "E3 2k6: Halo 3 Trailer Impressions" (HTML). IGN E3 2006 Coverage. IGN.com. Retrieved 2007-06-25. ...rendered in real-time on the Xbox 360 using the current version of the Halo 3 engine.
  7. ^ alextotherescue (May 25). Halo 3: Sky Testing Part 2 (flash). Clan Hat Trick. Retrieved 2007-05-27. {{cite AV media}}: Check date values in: |date= and |year= / |date= mismatch (help)
  8. ^ Frank O'Connor (Frankie) (2007-06-15). "Bungie Weekly Update: 06/15/07" (HTML). Bungie.net. Retrieved 2007-06-16. ..and this isn't a Havok physics issue, this is a bug with the Halo melee physics...
  9. ^ Matt Webb Mitovich (2006-12-15). "Dexter's No. 1 Gal — Julie Benz" (HTML). TVGuide.com. Retrieved 2007-04-28. Benz: You know what? I am actually not a part of Halo 3.
  10. ^ Dustin Burg (2007-04-10). "Halo 3 video questions cleared up" (HTML). Xbox 360 fanboy Halo 3 Coverage. Xbox360fanboy.com. Retrieved 2007-04-17. ..the new bubble shield and trip mine are two of the X button's deployments ...
  11. ^ "Kotaku Beta Preview Presentation". Retrieved 2007-05-12.
  12. ^ a b "The Five Best Things About Halo 3". Retrieved 2007-04-28.
  13. ^ "Xboxyde Halo 3 Beta menu pictures". Retrieved 2007-05-11.
  14. ^ Sid, Vicious; Marbles, Mr.; Moses, Tenacious; Offender, Long-Haired (July), "Halo Goes Supernova", GamePro, no. July 2007, pp. 48–64, retrieved 2007-06-06 {{citation}}: Check date values in: |date= and |year= / |date= mismatch (help)
  15. ^ "Bungie Weekly Update: November 10, 2006". Retrieved 2007-06-10.
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External links


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